'Alice'

'Church is your salvation now, holy water your weapon. You either kill them or make the choice, but it's too late for that. Now pick up a weapon and follow me; 'cause I will not wait around. They took my sister and that's why I'm here. To make sure none of you make the wrong choice.'

Vampyres are not the thing of Legend. In this world, they are the superiors. They control the Human race and force them to live in the hovels while they live the good life, up in their sparkling Cities. Alice is one of the many children who are reaching their weakest point in life. The age that they are liable to make the choice. You can carry on your existance as Human or you can cry up to the skies and hope to Christ God's not listening, because when you do, they'll take you away.

Alice Reeve is part of the rebellion, a group of Humans who fight the Vampyres with all they've got. Ever since her sister was taken from her, she has wanted nothing more than to rid of the Vampyre species. She thought she knew everything...

When her sister begins to haunt her dreams, Alice has to fight for her Humanity; but when she too is taken by the Vampyres without making her choice, she has to find out why. Now, she has to figure out a whole new meaning to the word 'Chosen.'
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Chapters:

It wasn't until I looked into her eyes that I realised that for
the first time… I'd really lost her.

People always used to ask me how I coped. It wasn't really a
question with a straightforward answer; you could go one way or
another about those kinds of things. The therapy sessions… the
endless torture of being forced to endure a sweaty man with an
unkempt moustache pressing on about my feelings. It was just a
matter of time before I slipped. Before I screamed 'well how the
fuck would you react if you lost your sister?' and grabbed the
stupid little man that thought he knew me by the front of his
shirt and spat in his face. I could just shake my head after
that, laugh a little as if I hadn't done any harm and shrugged;
'think about it next time' I'd say… if I was brave enough.
Which I guess I wasn't.

Alice Reeve, that's the name I was given; the name of a normal
child. I guess every way that I looked at it; I wasn't a normal
kid. No matter how many times I showed my face to the public with
a fake smile, nothing would spare me from the endless whispers.
Alice Reeve, the sister of that one girl who gave it all away.
That was the fear factor all over the world these days, the ones
who give it all away.

Abigail. That was her name. Beautiful golden locks that fell down
her face like an endless waterfall, the eyes of precious pearls
staring out at the world as if for the first time. I wish that I
could still say that her eyes were that beautiful pearl, that her
fresh smile still sparkled on her face endlessly. She wasn't like
that any more. In fact, I didn't even see her after that
day.
Seventeen.
That's when you choose.
Just a kid, not even classed as an adult. Not eighteen, not
sixteen, seventeen. You meet in the middle. You're legal to do a
lot of things. You can drive, you can have sex you can even
smoke. But that's just not enough for some people.
Because… on your seventeenth birthday.
On everyone's seventeenth birthday. You're liable to make the
choice.
The choice to end your life.

It's not in the way that you'd think. It's not a suicide pact;
even through years of hardship and labour, countless recessions
and evil Governments, we haven't reached the day we'd hand our
lives over to death.
Again, we meet in the middle. It's not life any more, that's how
we see it. On your seventeenth birthday you're given the choice
to break free of the society that keeps you safe and move onto
another one. A powerful society that has harnessed the humans in
labour since the beginning of time, the ones that take up the
cities and force us to live in the hovels underneath. They use us
for their own personal gain; and what's so very ironic about the
situation is that we can choose whether to escape the torture. To
leave this world behind and join them in their sparkling
city.
Of course, it comes with a price. Don't all great things do that?
I have to at least tell myself that to get to sleep at night.
Because, Abby wouldn't just leave without a reason. I had to be
sure of that. It was all I could do to keep myself sane.
The price is something that not many people give up; something
that stops the mind from instantly choosing the easy option to
escape. When you turn seventeen, you can choose to stay in
poverty and labour, or you can be stripped of your humanity
instead.

"Humanity's overrated," I hear her say. That voice, ringing in my
head like a constant church bell. A place she wouldn't be welcome
in any more. She laughed like she was really thinking of the
option.
I still remember my trembling voice, the feeling of my heart
squeezing as if caught in a vice. She was actually considering
it… Oh God, what had I done to deserve this of her?
"Y-You can't!" My voice was young, barely ten, just a
child…
"Alice, you don't understand!" I'd been sat, cross-legged on my
bed. On the many beds that surrounded us. I guess you could call
our home a refuge of sorts; a place to escape the Unholy that
tried to control us. We grouped up as families inside a church,
St James' Church. Sacred ground. She'd been on the far side of
the room, closest to the door, threatening to run down the
stairs, spit on the alter and run out into the darkness and just
scream I give up!
I could see the tears welling in her eyes. I remember my own,
fresh and already spilling freely down my cheeks. I was shaking
so hard I think I'd gone numb, completely frozen as I watched her
helplessly.
She held out her arm, twisting her fingers together into a tight
fist, "they took my friends Alice, they took them and drank from
them right in front of me! How fucked up is that?"
"B-but," I remembered my brain hurting from the conversation.
Surely, there were rules on this sort of thing. The unholy
couldn't just drink from humans, the human had to be a liable
donor, they had to sign their name on a document… it was supposed
to be official.
"Shit goes down, Alice." Abigail reminded me, her eyelids that
had been coated in eyeliner was now smudged over her face. She
looked like a little blonde racoon. She was so confused. She'd
turned away from me this time, grabbing her hair in massive
clumps as she folded in on herself, letting out a strangled cry,
"God!" she yelled, "Those things are so fucking corrupt. They
just take the ones with nothing to lose, take 'em and eat 'em
before they even get the chance to fucking choose!"
I'd already felt the comfort of my pillow as it pressed against
my face. I forced myself not to listen. Abigail did this a lot.
She'd scream about how corrupt stuff was, about the friends she'd
lost… because we all had. People went missing all the time, and
the ones who witnessed it were sworn to secrecy, because you
couldn't fight them. You can't fight the almighty, the unholy and
the undead.
The Vampyres.

I don't remember much of what happened after that. I was too
young. My mind seemed to wipe me clean of my sister who had
turned away from Humanity.
She had nothing left.
She was a wreck and she wanted more than anything to lose the
emotion that was attached to that. She'd just walked out the day
she turned seventeen. We hadn't even woken. She'd left early,
before the sun had even risen. I should have seen it coming. But
I didn't. None of us did, and there were a lot. We would stay on
look-out for the Vampyres in case they walked on the filth of
humanity for a quick bite. Whoever was watching never saw Abigail
disappear. My sister, my dearest Abby…
The one that gave it all away.

That's how I found myself surrounded in darkness, sitting in a
room with walls that stood strong around me. I could smell the
scent of varnished wood; I could feel the material scrape against
my arms each time I tried to turn. I closed my eyes. I couldn't
do this any more. I was just the sister of that one girl…
Abby…
"Forgive me Father for I have sinned." My throat felt sore as I
spoke the words, looking up to the small engraved piece of metal
that separated us. A confession booth. For some reason it felt so
cliché. I shuddered to think I'd sunk this low, but stood my
ground, shivering in the darkness.
"What are your confessions my child?" the voice of salvation…
Father Peters, a man of forty five yet he'd aged in a way to look
almost eighty. That's what this world did to you… aged you beyond
recognition. All because of the Vampyres.
Get a grip, I instructed myself, taking in a deep breath. Father
Peters was ever determined to cleanse us of our sins. It helped
to remind us of the reasons we didn't make the choice. "I dreamt
of Abigail again last night." I rasped, clinging onto the small
wooden seat.
"That isn't a sin, Alice." I could tell that he was tired. It was
most likely a long night. A night filled with the restless, the
ones who dragged him out of bed and pleaded for him to cleanse
them. Sins were all we had; no one was a do-gooder. We couldn't
possibly be when living in a society corrupt by those
things.
"It is." I reminded him, I could feel the guilt building up in my
chest before I'd even spoken the words. I hated to say it. I
hated it. But I knew my secrets were safe with him.
"She came to me."
"She can't come to you."
"She came to me." I had to remind him I wasn't finished. That I'd
never be finished. "She wants me to change… I dreamt that, I
dreamt that… that," Oh God, why was this so difficult? The sputum
clung to my throat like an extra skin. I tried to clear it, but
it didn't work. "that she turned me."
Silence.
Father Peters was a man of God; but throughout the years of
torment, he'd slowly begun to believe less and less. If Hell's
creatures could live among Humans, drink from them, kill them and
control them in every way, it'd be enough to turn anyone from the
path of God. Still, he'd kept his faith. Enough to cleanse us,
enough to make us feel safe. He blessed the church every night,
just in case the sacred ground wasn't enough to keep them at bay.
Then, he just sat in the confession booth and waited for the
cries to come. Usually he'd say something at this point,
anything… but the other side of the booth was painfully silent. I
could feel the tears coming but suppressed them as long as I
could. I had to be strong, the others in the church were reliant
on that.
"You turn seventeen in two days."
I nodded, though I knew he couldn't see, "Yes."
"Your dreams are right to be filled with your fears, Alice. Don't
fear that you are becoming like your sister." I heard him
swallow, I heard him take his handkerchief from his pocket.
Fabric against skin… wiping away the building sweat from his
forehead. "These people may expect you to turn from the path of
God, but you are not your sister."
I didn't see the point in this speech of his. We both knew that
when I turned seventeen… the real dreams would begin. Vampyres
had a psychic connection to the humans; some believed that they
were even the Temptation come to Earth. On every seventeenth
birthday, no matter who you were, no matter where you were… as
soon as you gave your consciousness away, they'd find you. They'd
tempt you. They'd call for you.
They'd use your family.
"Abigail is going to call for me." I stated, attempting to keep
my vocals in check. I winced. It wasn't working.
There was another silence before I heard Father Peters clear his
throat, "Are you keeping your weekly meetings with your
therapist?"
I wrinkled my nose at the thought. Six years, almost seven, of
meeting with that tiresome man. He tried to get me to talk but
for every year I became harder and harder to speak with. I think
he gave up in the end. He just began to ask me simple questions.
How I was, what I was planning to do today, the day after
next…
Collect food, buy new weapons at the black market, feed our
Church and go to bed. That was what my life was made up of. We
didn't have schools, not any more. People didn't bother turning
up, especially when the Vampyres started making guest
appearances.
I used to go.
Up until the age of twelve they would paint the schools with holy
water and hang up crosses across the windows. We'd sit in
classrooms of ten people and listen to a teacher drone on about
knowledge that most of us would never need. Some of them had
already chosen to give it up when they turned seventeen… Those
children would take down the crosses, spit on the walls… invite
the Vampyres in as if they were testing them, getting them ready
for the shining world of Immortality.
We didn't even really know if they truly were immortal. We didn't
care anymore. They outlived Humans and that was more important.
They could go on for hundreds of years yet we withered and died.
The children of God…dying at the hands of Hell.
I blinked, realising that Father Peters was waiting on a reply.
How long had I been sitting here? How long had I left him waiting
this time?
"You haven't, have you Alice?"
"I can't risk walking down three separate roads every week just
to talk to him." I muttered, folding my arms, "we're the
rebellion."
"The Unholy haven't made an attack since-"
"-Since they got Abby's friends, before they took her, I know."
I'd barely realised that I'd raised my voice until I heard my own
tone echo back at me from the enclosed space. I sucked in a
breath and ducked my head low, "Sorry."
A final pause. I heard a rustle from the other side. Father
Peters was exiting, so I did too.
We met on the outside, in the brilliant marble arch of the
Church. The floors had been coated in a glaze of holy water, the
walls hung high with crucifixes. Twenty pews stretched out from
each side of the room, meeting on the far end to the magnificent
wooden altar that stood on a large marble staircase. A chandelier
hung from the ceiling, shining against the large arched window on
the far wall. The evening sun stretched its rays against the
floor, a dancing mixture of shadow and light encasing the
beautiful holy ground.

I smiled and bowed to Father Peters, draped in his large black
cloak. He bowed back, taking my hand in his. "Four Hail Marys."
He instructed with a smile. "And one Our Father."
I nodded, gripping his warm hand in mine. "Thank you." I mumbled
as I felt him rope an arm around my shoulders, guiding me out
from the Church's main halls, upstairs to dress for the evening
to come.